American Real Estate Academy

This year I thought I’d give AREA real estate school another try for my online Continuing Education Courses,.
I used to do my classes in person here, but some of the instructors were abrasive, so I went somewhere else. A few years ago, the state allowed CEUs to be done online, and I found a place where I liked the instructor, but I thought it would be good to hear from another teacher to get new input; even though AREA charges more than the provider I have been using.
I went on AREA’s website to see what subjects they offered online, but the site wouldn’t let me see their online courses unless I registered. I called them to see if they could tell me what they offered. There was a recording, but nowhere to leave a message. I emailed to find out, but the email would not go through.
A total lack of customer service/​support. I didn’t realize I had it so good at my other school/​instructor. Live and learn.

AREA is a superb educational resource for prospective real-​estate agents. Since 40 hours of classroom training is required, my instructor spent half the time walking us through the in’s and out’s of Mass real-​estate vocabulary, theories, and laws. She spent the other half of the time telling us stories and utilizing relevant examples to cement her points further in our minds. If she took the entire time reading out of the binder, which reads like a text book, then I would have probably fallen asleep every single day.
The material we were provided was more than adequate for us to take the test. In fact, I would say the binder along with all the practice exams were overkill. After having taken the exam, I felt that I over-​studied and had passed without a single worry. This is not to say you should slack on your studies! Some people test differently than others so study until you’re comfortable.
Why AREA really deserves 5 stars is because they actually care about their students. I’ll give you an example of something I’ve personally never seen out of any business or organization. AREA has a parking lot in the rear of it’s building which you can utilize for free. However, it can fill up quite fast. As a result, some students park at meters in front of the building. One of the staff members would periodically go outside and feed the meters with his own quarters. He doesn’t even know if the cars are AREA students but he would feed them anyway. Once, I saw him feed a meter and a few moments later random teenagers got in the car and drove away. That’s the definition of «above and beyond» in my book.

Terribly boring. Bring something else to do while you suffer through this. Course is 40 hours (mandated in MA) but, 80% of the class is devoid of any real content (I.e boring stories about antique roadshow, the instructors husband, etc).

After taking the MA real estate exam and passing (woot!), I can now give a fair review to AREA.
I signed up to take the required 40 hours of pre licensure to become a real estate salesperson at AREA since I had a friend who’d been through their program. I looked into Lee, but the reviews on Unilocal were somewhat abysmal and that scared me a bit.
I emailed the office to see if I could customize my schedule a bit, which was no problem. Rather than take class for 10 hours each day, I opted to take each of the 8 modules on different days; so some days I had a 9 am to 2 pm session, and others I had a 2 pm to 7. But, there are ample breaks built in (2 15s and 30 for lunch), so the time commitment’s really not that bad. So, you pay them $ 350 and they give you a binder of notes and talk at you for those 40 hours.
I took most of the modules with Alicia, a business lawyer who told a lot of stories, which I’m sure helped fill the time (recently upped from 20 hours to 40). It also helped me stay awake in these lectures, and facilitated my remembering the facts better. We did have a sub one day, and he merely read from the binder. I had the most trouble understanding and applying concepts from that module when I was studying.
Their book has 4 practice exams and also explains the answers and breaks down math problems. I was nervous I’d be under prepared for the exam, but AREA’s course content and delivery style insured just the opposite.
I would absolutely recommend them and go back for further education if needed.
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